Welcome to the Circus
by ConArtist 24-7
Summary: A new villian has emerged in Gotham, and poses a threat to Batman and unwanted problems for all villians, but most of all Joker. Is the fledgling criminal actually ready for the show? Is everyone else? Well, the show must go on no matter the cost.


Theodore King, more commonly known as Teddy, grinned as the sun made it past his blinds, waking him from his slumber. Today was the day he had been planning for since he was twelve, a grand six years ago. The fall leaves were now at their brightest coloration, he had managed to get his always agreeable grandmother to allow him the day home from school, and all his equipment was placed in the ware house he bought with money he had saved from his job as well as some swiped from an unknowing passer-byers on the street. Of course, he had bought the warehouse under a false name, all in straight cash, and over a public phone. He was not stupid after all.

Slipping from the warmth of his bed, Teddy glanced at himself in his mirror, sighing. Brown eyes, brown hair, and nothing special about his looks. He was average, at least on the surface. But, again, that would be taken care of tonight. He glanced at the floor, eyeing his duffle bag almost lovingly, before going to his closet. He was greated by a soft screech. "Good morning Hatty~" he cooed. The top hate with a face and wings made a noise akin to a huff, turning away from the light. "Now, now baby. That is not nice." He chuckled any how and reached around the machine to grab a bland tan turtle neck and a pair of faded jeans. It was amazing what you could make out of a top hat, microwave, and stray batarangs.

Sitting at the breakfast table, Teddy shifted in his seat, faking his innocent average teenager act infront of his grandparents, one of which was staring him down. "Theodore," The teen mentally groaned as his grandfather said his name. He was sure this up coming lecture, speech, conversation, what ever the Hell the oldman wanted to call it, was going to be long winded. "This is your last year of school, son, and I don't want you to make a habit of convincing Joyce to let you stay home." Teddy nearly smirked as his grandmother rolled her eyes in the backround and flipped her husband the bird behind his back. Seems they had one of their spats.

"I know, granpa. I just wanted to go to the park and sketch out some of the scenery today. The weather man said today was going to beautiful, and it is!" He smiled kindly, lifting a fork full of pancakes to his mouth. "Thats all well and good, but you could easily do that after school, and-"

"Give it a rest, Boris. Let the kid live a little." The old man snorted, nose scrunching and making the wrinkles in his face look deeper. "Hrmph, just because you were one of those hippies doesn't mean you can let MY grandson act like one too. If it had been up to me, he would have went to military school just like his father."

"Well, its a good thing I also have cusody over him too then." As the bickering continued, Teddy took it as his chance to finish the rest of his food quickly and slip back upstairs.

After gathering his duffle bag and Hatty, who was miffed to say the least about going into the duffle bag as well, the brunette bolted, shouting a quick 'good-bye' to the still arguing old folks.

That had been the last time they would ever see him, for tonight, Theodore King was to die...And Ringmaster was to be born.

-~( )

The plan worked smoothly. For three days the boy hid, waiting till the police gave up their search for him. Perhaps they would have looked longer had not a new villian arose. Ringmaster. To the boy once known as Theodore, the name held power. It ment HE ran the show, no one else. The Ringmaster was perfect. Unique with his wild purple hair, which was some times covered by his faithful Hatty, and toxic yellow-green eyes. The young villian wore a metal eye cover and many metal bangles over his body. His skin looked so pale against his lips, painted black. He even had a unique style! A long trench coat made of many mismatched colors and materials, light boots with pointed tips, and gloves that made it look like he had long sharp nails. Oh, and to top it all off he had his wonderful cane, which he named The Conductor. A skull for the grip, black ribbon wrapped around the pole until it reached to the corkscrew blade that was the bottom.

Since his birth, the Ringmaster had made on large heist, stealing jewels from a fancy store with ease. Just him and his trusted, though not the best company, Hatty. They hit a few smaller stores, scared a few civilians, and even shanked a gaurd in the knee, but he was still a small fry. He had yet to get a mention in the paper bigger then a two by one inch block in the back of the news paper. He understood he was new, but he was doing this with no henchmen and he had pulled how many robbers in three days and nights? Five? That was almost two a day! Well... he'd have to go bigger if he wanted to stop playing second fiddle to everyone else. He expected only two people to get bigger headlines and stories then him, and that was Batman and Joker. The rest could go find a different city, this one would be his.

For the next month, Ringmaster did only one known heist, snatching an expensive sapphire from right under a gaurd's nose at the muesum. The rest of his days and nights were spent raiding junk yards and dumps, even a few chemical plants and small stores that sold poisons. He needed more weapons. Sure, Hatty and The Conductor worked well enough, but they were not enough! He made more machines sort of like Hatty, though he named them Fire Breathers. There were five, coming to his waist. They had one hand, the other a long blade, and a tire that they rolled on to move. Why were they called Fire Breathers? Because they breathed fire of course! Wasn't the Ringmaster clever~?

-~( )

Joker sighed, pouting in his padded room. Here he was, back at the chuckle farm. Curtisy of Batsy of course! This brought the grin back to his face. Oh, he could not wait to get out and tango with the bat-dressed loon. And they thought he was crazy!

The door opening and a intern of Dr. Strange grummbling brought him back to the present. "All right, clown. Time for social activity."

"OooH! You are going to put me in a room with a bunch of nuts? Isn't that dangerous?" The green haired man asked, faking horror. "Trust me, you'll be fine." Was the other's deadpan responce.

All the other inmates, besides other well known villians, stayed far away from him as he sat, tied tight in his jacket, watching television. Two-face was next to him, smoking a cigar that he bribed a nurse into giving him, while The Riddler sat on the arm of the couch, reading a book. To them, Arkham was nothing more then a vacation, and they knew they would be able to escape when ever they truly needed to. The atmosphere was almost relaxing. Well, until the News interupted the clown's soap opera. "NO! Who was Charlene going to marry!" To-face rolled his eyes, taking a big puff of smoke. "Oh, can it will ya."

'_We are sorry to interupt this afternoon's show line up, but we have breaking news. Bob?'_

_**'Right. Sally, it seems the newbie of the villians has finally reared his head again! And from what the police have been telling me, he was merely testing the water those three days a month ago, and with the one robbery a week and a half ago.'**_

_'Please explain what has transpired.'_

_**'The Ringmaster, which he finally identified himself as, has broke into Wayne interpizes and stole blue prints of weapons for the army! Not only that, but over three thousand in the staff's money. And he was not alone.'**_

_'So, he has joined forces with a gang or a more experienced villian?'_

_**'No Sally, it seems as though the Ringmaster is just as good at making gadgets as Batman. Small robots have burned and cut down everything in their way in the raid. Twenty people injured, two fatally burned. I-'**_

Suddenly, a screeching top hat swooped in, grabbing the camera with talons it had hidden, as well as the microphone. The sky was all that could be seen, until the equipment was dropped on a roof top roughly.

"Damn it Hatty! Watch it!" There was another screech before the camera was picked up by two robots who wheeled around to grab it. That was when the world got its first look at the Ringmaster, who twirled the mic for amoment before speaking into it. "Hello ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls of all ages~! I hope everyone is enjoying the show!" Pristine white teeth sparkled as he grinned. "Now, I hope every one was not too upset about the brief intermission, but new rings had to be set! Acts made!" Toxic eyes shut and the madman hummed. "Before I go about with starting the next act, I would like to give a shout out to the Prince of Crime and The Dark Knight, the clown and the bat, The Joker and Batman! I look forward to meeting you both, stars of the circus! But for now," Ringmaster waved as the camera started to roll backwards. "I bid you all adeu!" the camera was then flung from the building, picture turning to static when it hit the sidewalk below.

Two-face snarled and slammed his fist down onto the coffee table infront of them. "THATS OUR DISTRICT!" he howled, angry that some new villian would dare invade his territory. Two orderly were almost instantly one him, dragging him out of the REC room. The Riddler merely glanced up from his book, shaking his head. Joker, on the other hand, tilted his head to the side, grinning wildly at the television. He looked forward to meeting 'The Ringmaster' and showing him he was nothing compared to the big dogs. The mere idea got him giddy and escaping Arkham became the promident thought in his head.

-~( )

Bruce Wayne sighed as he shifted through his wrecked building, helping some of his employees pick out important papers that were not scrapped. Alfred was not too far behind him, huffing slightly. "Honestly, why another villian? Why can't it be another hero?" The young billionaire smiled slightly at his english butlers voiced thoughts. "I just think the youth these days are too lazy. Stealing is alot easier then protecting. What do you have to say Master Bruce?"

"I might have to agree on that, Alfred." The two friends moved away from the workers to speak. "Some of those plans were base designs for new gear." Bruce whispered. The older man sighed, rubbing his forehead in exhasperation. "Well, as long as you did not put the bat symbol on it, I do not see a problem, as long as the Batman retrieves the plans, yes?" The young Wayne nodded grimmly and forced a smile as some reporters headed his way.

-~( )

Music rocked the warehouses fondations, making the sheet metal tremble. Ringmaster felt like he was on top of the world, like he was all powerful. These designs he snatched were amazing! His Firebreathers were scattered about the city, collecting more metal and circuts for him, so he could build the new robots he designed, so it was just him and Hatty looking over the blue prints. "This Wayne sure knows how to build things. And here I was thinking all richies were dumb as a sack of bricks." He mummbled, knocking off his wig to scratch the brown locks beneith it. The bat like top hat perched on his shoulder, nuzzling his cheek, something the machine rarely did. Ringmaster smiled, moving his hand down to pat its top. "Your such a good boy..." Though the machine could be highly irratating, rude, and generally mean to the teen, he loved it. It was his first invention that did not blow up in his face. The top hat was there when his parents divorced and left him with his grandparents, there when things at school went sour, there when he had nightmares...Always there. "How about a tune up, Hatty?" he asked, earning a happy chirp like noise from the usually screechy thing. The blue prints could wait until tomorrow morning. For now, he would update the hat's software then get some much needed sleep. Standing, he turned off the stereo, making the warehouse sigh in relief.

Teddy awoke the next morning when one of the Firebreathers poked him until he was brought out of his dreams. "Mmmhmph, what is it?" he yawned, stretching. Though he was fully clothed, the teen felt almost naked without his costume. The machine held out its blade, which was broken. "Oh, what happened?" the boy asked, ignoring his own feelings to examine the robot. It looked like something cut straight through the sterdy metal. "Alright, I think I still have that spare..."

After fitting the new blade onto the machine, he looked over the rest of it. Glad to see nothing else was wrong, he scooted the metal creature to the side, and began putting himself back together.

Looking into the full length 'mirror', which was just a slab of shiny metal, Ringmaster grinned. "Much better." Tapping The Conductor to his boot a few times before turning, the green eyed villian took stock of what his little 'babies' brought him. He beemed proudly at his five creations. "Good work Firebreathers, everything but one circut board is here! Go refuel." The five machines did as told, burning rubber to get to the fuel tank so not to be the last there. Weight on the Ringmaster's head alerted him to Hatty's presence. "Recharge well?" A screech was his answer. "I'm glad. Well, today is going to be busy, then tonight we have some fun." Another screech broken into pieces, the top hat's version of laughter. "...I'm making you a voice box."

The Ringmaster was proud of his work. His three new robots, Jugglers, stood at attention infront of him. With six arms, which they walked on as well, and spidery like fingers, they were perfect bombers. "Alrightyyyy then, lets head out troops, kyahaha!"

-~( )

Ringmaster was pleasantly surprised when, after robbing a bank, he and his robots were cornered by The Batman. "Ah! If it isn't one of my idols! Though you, hopefully, already know my name, I'll introduce myself. The name's Ringma-"

"Enough with the games, Ringmaster." The teen frowned deeply at being interupted. "The blue prints from Wayne introprices, where are they."

"And I would tell you why? You know-"

"Then you are going to Arkham." Being interupted for the second time made Ringmaster twitch with anger. He hated that more then anything. "I don't think so! Performers," he had taken to calling his mechanical henchmen. "Scatter!" they went in every direction, Jugglers climbing and Firebreathers speeding off and into alleys. With Hatty on his head, The Ringmaster started to slash away at the hero with his cane, snarling and trying to land a hit. Each slash was dodged easily by Batman, who eventually countered by slamming his fist into the angry villian's stomach, sending the purple haired male rolling backwards. Hatty on the other hand lept off his creator's head and attached himself to the Dark Knight's face, clawing with his talons.

Ringmaster panted hard and slowly forced himself up, already feeling his stomach bruise. "H-ha...Hatty?" he heard the screeches, but did not feel the top hat on his head. Toxic eyes widened behind his mask when he spotted his creation on Batman. And he could only watch in stunned horror as the hero brought out a batarang and slashed his friend right down the middle. "HATTY!" Ringmaster was not aware that he screamed, all he could hear was the two 'thunks' of each half of his top hat hitting the ground.

Batman heard the scream from the new villian and could see the look of pure misery written on his face. He then instantly knew he did something horribly wrong. Ringmaster rose fully, and even though he was a good head taller, the hero felt like he was being loomed over. "...You stupid son of a bitch...I'M GOING TO FUCKING MURDER YOU!" With a roar of fury, the younger man lunged forward, slashing wildly with his cane, free hand throwing punches, and legs coming up to kick any chance they got. The Batman had been so stunned by the sudden out burst that he had been caught by surprise, the corkscrew end of the cane catching him in the side and a fist upper cutting him in the jaw so hard he saw stars. He stummbled back, only to be knock over by a line backer shoulder to the chest. He hit the ground and felt metal against his throat. Snarling, the caped crusader knocked the cane away and kicked Ringmaster where he punched him earlier, earning him a howl of pain. Both paused when the sound of sirens echoed down the street. "I'll see you around, Batman." Ringmaster whispered with malice, before the teen grabbed the remains of his hat and fled, leaving the other to flee as well.

-~( )

Teddy hunched over his work bench, working furiously and without breaks. He could care less that he was no longer in the only outfit he felt like himself in, or that his stomach and throat were begging for food and water, or that he was in utter pain. All he was worried about was retrieving the memory core of Hatty so he could build him anew. "This time," he muttered, brown eyes narrow. "I'll build you better, stronger, so this will never happen again."


End file.
